Several Flint Community Schools buildings, two Beecher schools on state's preliminary list of worst performing schools

FLINT, Michigan -- A Flint high school and a handful of middle schools and elementary buildings in the Flint and Beecher districts have made a preliminary list of worst performers that the state could take over or even close.

Flint Northwestern High School and Dort, Brownell and Williams elementaries made the draft list of the lowest 5 percent performing schools. The list was included in Michigan’s Race to the Top application to secure $400 million in funding for state schools.

The list, based on data from the past school year, included four Flint middle schools and some elementary buildings that have since closed.

Beecher and Flint school officials were not available for comment Monday.

Parents of some Dort Elementary students were surprised to learn their children’s school was on a list of worst performers.

“We don’t want them to take over the school,” Ray Jameson, a Flint parent, said today waiting to pick up his first-grader, Joseff Youmans, 6.

“They just need more teachers in there, that’s it,” Jameson added.

The state warns that the list is preliminary and is based on last year’s student test scores, graduation rates and other measures and could change before a final list comes out by Sept. 1.

“The preliminary list of turnaround schools included in our Race to the Top application is a draft and will change dramatically when the federal government finalizes the formula and we have student test results for this current school year,” said Jan Ellis, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Education.